William Cowper Truth Quotations

A patriot's blood, Well spent in such a strife, may earn indeed, And for a time ensure to his loved land, The sweets of liberty and equal laws; But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize, And win it with more pain. Their blood is shed In confirmation of the noblest claim -- Our claim to feed upon immortal truth, To walk with God, to be divinely free, To soar, and to anticipate the skies. Yet few remember them.

For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost We seek it, ere it come to light, In every cranny but the right

One leg by truth supported, one by lies,They sidle to the goal with awkward pace,Secure of nothing -- but to lose the race.

All truth is precious, if not all divine; and what dilates the powers must needs refine.

Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,- A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.

But what is truth? 'Twas Pilate's question put To Truth itself, that deign'd him no reply.

Truth is the golden girdle of the globe.

Ceremony leads her bigots forth, prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths, on which eternal things depend, can hardly find a single friend.

And diff'ring judgments serve but to declare that truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where.

A fool must now and then be right, by chance

They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed.